It seems the PCS seldom climbs these low elevation peaks,
but the SPS website is littered with stories about how
people came back at or after dark every night while trying
to squeeze all three peaks (and sometimes adding Tower) into
a 3-day weekend. I decided to relax a bit and add a fourth
day. The extra time, a fun group, and a one-way route that
covered new territory every day, all combined to turn what
could have been a grunt into a great Labor Day weekend trip.

The trip REALLY started with multi-day discussions about how
to set up a car shuttle between Saddlebag Lake (near Tioga
Pass) and Twin Lakes (near Bridgeport). Careful reading
convinced me that a short cross-country section with packs,
between Saddleback and McCabe lakes, would allow us to do a
one-way trip with no extra climbing and widely varied
scenery each day. The gain from Saddlebag is the same as the
gain from Twin, but there is a lot of downhill on the way in
from Saddlebag. Another advantage of starting at Saddlebag
is that you can get permits right at the lake (starting at
630am), and there is NO QUOTA even if you're crossing into
Yosemite.

We took the $6 boat ride to save 2 miles of boring walk
around the lake, and stepped into high alpine terrain dotted
with little lakes. We went past Steelhead Lake, but should
have went further west near Cascade Lake to avoid a few
bumps. The low point of the ridge south of Shepherd Crest
has a good use trail and a metal "Yosemite" sign, letting
you know you're on the right route to McCabe Lake. Avoid the
outlet of McCabe, going north around the east end of the
10400' contour, and follow either side of the stream in
great tundra and duff until you pick up the trail just above
9400' on the south side.

We picked up the Pacific Crest Trail down in Virginia
Canyon, and followed it into Matterhorn Canyon where we
stopped for dinner before packing another hour into the
hanging valley that holds Wilson Creek. This is big-tree
country, and the only good camping along Wilson Creek is
where the trail first approaches the stream (8900'). We were
well over a thousand feet below our cars, and we had climbed
over 3000' to get there! A warm and restful night lead to an
early start the next morning. 3 hours of hiking got us to
Smedberg lake, a shallow green spot surrounded by slabs. The
swampy edges would be mosquito hell in the summer, but we
were there after a few hard frosts and had no problems.

Tony rested while the other four hoisted day packs and
headed for Pettit. We weren't sure we'd have time to do
Volunteer that day, and wanted to get the furthest peak
first. Well, everything can change, and we soon found
ourselves scrambing up a little 3rd class (Roger's first),
cutting below the lower part of the east face to the south
ridge via the bench at about 9800'. The terrain between the
peaks was "tortured" to say the least, and we wanted a high
vantage to pick the best route. Volunteer is very scenic but
not a very hard climb (see picture of Smedberg Lake from the
summit), and was Roger's first peak from the SPS list.

The traverse to Pettit is not trivial, and we followed the
advice of staying at 10000' as long as we could... but the
traverse gets nasty as you approach the east end of Rodgers
Lake, so we swung up to the 10400' saddle and followed the
ridge south to Pettit. The register is on the middle bump,
and the descent to Rodgers Lake can be done mostly
brush-free. The high country east and north of Pettit is
dotted with tiny lakes, and surely deserves a visit sometime
in the future. (Andy Spellman had written "I could eat
scrapple with hoagie oil" in the register - fill me in if
you know what that means!)

Back in camp around 5pm, we headed to the outlet of Smedberg
to camp. Tony had been visited by a ranger who thought our
scattered gear represented a camp, and who was about to cite
it for being too close to the lake. There was time for a dip
in the lake, a large flat rock we could all cook on, the
smoke from controlled burns was behind us, and we had time
to pat ourselves on the back for a 3500' day with two peaks
AND some backpacking.

Sunday morning, we ditched the trail and headed
cross-country down the Smedberg drainage. The PCT goes
up/down over 300' to avoid the slabs we enjoyed, and we
picked up the trail as it switchbacked down through the
8800' contour line. Mostly downhill walking lead us to the
Benson Lake turnoff, near where Linda took a surprise bath
while crossing a shallow stream: Some of us waded the 4"
sandy stream, but Linda had fabric boots and chose a nearby
log instead. It turned out to have floating debris around
it, which looked attached but actually hid a deep pool.
Between two logs, up to her armpits in the pool, it took a
bit of a tug to hoist her out. This was more surprising than
dangerous, because the flow was very slow, but in fast-water
conditions such a mistake could be costly.

We climbed the PCT until it leaves the drainage for Seavey
Pass, around 8600', dumped our packs and headed to Piute's
northeast ridge. If I do this peak again, I'll probably
leave the trail at 8400', and diagonal south into the bowl
east-southeast of the peak. There is a lake and some good
trees there, neither of which show on the map. Going to the
east ridge from this bowl, instead of hitting the ridge
further north, would avoid most of the up-and-down climbing
we did along the ridge crest. It would NOT avoid the tedious
climb from the trail to the ridge, which is thin sage-type
brush over talus.

All of us had chest/throat irritation from the aromatic
plants we were walking on by the time we reached the ridge
at 9700'. The view from here stopped us cold: We expected
another class 2 slog, but were looking at sheer cliffs with
no obvious path through them! Secor's book indicates there
is a right (sandy) and left (vegetation) chute, but doesn't
mention that both routes start at the upper right (north)
corner of the permanent snowfield shown just below 10000' on
the 7.5' topo. The left "chute" isn't a chute at all, it's a
very steep ramp that turns sharply to the right and becomes
a narrow exposed ledge behind a few trees. It's a great
route for ascending, but we came down the scree chute
because the vegetation seemed too hard and slick for an
easy/safe descent. See the web photo for a picture of this
face overlaid with the two routes: You can run the crest of
the NE ridge all the way to the snowfield, or you can
traverse the south side. Either way there are a few third
class moves unless you make time-consuming detours.

The big surprise came just after we hit Piute's north ridge
at the saddle just below 10400'. Following this ridge is NOT
second class, and you can't traverse around the hard parts
because it's a cliff on both sides. The third class stretch
is very short, and soon you're strolling across sand to the
summit blocks. It seems the forest service was burning Deep
Canyon or Piute Creek, with plumes of smoke rising from at
least 5 sources. The only register entries this year were
dozens of people from various trail crews, who felt the need
to use an entire register page per person. It took longer to
climb Piute than we intended, but it was the best climbing
of the trip in terms of route finding and impressive granite
faces. At 4000' total climbing (backpacking and peak
climbing) it was our tallest day (but with the shortest mileage).

Back at the packs, where Tony had been waiting patiently, we
stomped up the PCT toward Seavey Pass. Camp was at Lake
9000, again in the trees and again with time to take a dip
and have dinner before it got dark. There is a picture of
this lake on the web, which was almost as beautiful as the
hidden 8800' lake we passed coming down from Piute (a bit
north of where we went up).

The next morning I spent some time dispersing stacks of
firewood and breaking up fire rings, then we popped over
Seavey and headed "downhill" to the cars. Well, almost. It
turns out that Peeler Lake is the high point of the hike out
(1400' of gain)! It has two outlets and no inlets, but
looking at the map I had been convinced that one stream
flowed in and the other flowed out. Sigh. The terrain on the
hike out was sometimes dramatic, but mostly flat and open in
stark contrast to our entry route.

Around Barney Lake we started seeing "shore birds" - larger
groups of clean looking people who weren't in great shape,
meaning they couldn't be far from their cars. Did I mention
it was hot? Mid-afternoon at 8000' in the full sun made
Barney Lake's trees-and-breeze seem like heaven, and we took
a long lunch there before gritting our teeth for the last
four miles down to Twin Lake.

Walking into a mobile home park with restaurants and boat
docks and barking dogs after several days in the backcountry
is a shock to your sensibilities. We decided to have a late
lunch, since Tony had finally gotten his appetite back. In a
surprise turn of events, I didn't keep my lunch (or much of
anything else) down, for reasons still unknown. Since we had
to get back to the cars left at Saddlebag Lake, we were all
crammed into Ron's Toyota pickup: my partners were kind (or
wise) enough to give me the front seat, and Ron was good at
stopping on command, so we made our way to Lee Vining in
5-mile increments without serious internal accidents.